So, that nasty sore throat that was making my life miserable is pretty much dead in the water thanks to a few limes, some honey, hot water and a good knife. Peel and cut up 2 limes into bite size pieces, place them into a bowl, pour some honey on them and eat up. Yum! Well, it’s not supposed to be dessert, but that angry kitten with be gone from that throat. make some hot tea with what’s left and drink that if necessary. All I have now is this sneezing and a bit of stuffy nose action to deal with. I think tomorrow is a federal holiday anyway, so my fastest wi-fi spot may be shut down anyway, but I wanted to kick this stupid cold in the groin a few times so I’m all fresh and fancy for a few meetings coming up this week. Die, germs! I got your shutdown right here, POW!

Annnnnd speaking of shutdowns,

…yeah, we’re still in Stupidland in this country to the point of extreme irony rearing it’s sardonically smiling face in a big way. Case in point (and one among too many cases in point): the recent reopening of some important federal monuments and parks thanks in part to outrage from citizens and the idiots who set these events in motion not realizing that (duh!) states rake in HUGE much-needed revenues from many of these sites from locals and tourists alike (DUUUUH!). What’s worse here is yes, that revenue is indeed important, but if you really want to understand the purpose of certain monuments, taking their symbolism as seriously as that Constitution many claim to “know” but in actuality don’t grasp a damn them except talking points distilled from them is KEY.

To wit: these words appear on a plaque on the reopened Statue of Liberty:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost* to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Beautiful, huh? However, it seems that the poor tired huddled masses yearning to breathe free are all tourists with lots of dollars in their pockets these days crammed onto ferries headed to that statue and not those who want to come here and work out that American Dream stuff unless they pledge allegiance to the proper party and the direction that party prefer things go. Or something like that. Hmmm. Perhaps my choice of that YouTube clip above is more fitting for the current state of things in this country, given that it seems to be running itself by Sinistar’s philosophy.

Hey, not that I want all those monuments to stay shut while our fearful of not getting voted back in leaders act like spoiled rich kids at a birthday party, mind you. I just wish they’d pay MORE attention to the fine print on ALL those plaques and lay off the meaningless symbolism and parroting dead people they have no idea how they’d act if they saw what as going on today. OK, off to make some more tea – I guess I sure won’t be getting scurvy with all those limes I’m eating, har har…

(*yeah, yeah, it’s spelled “tost” on the actual plaque, but it’s “tossed” in case you were wondering if it was referring to the handy breakfast butter companion or something else. Hell, we already have enough people who can’t spell correctly using the internet – and they usually seem to be the ones always wrong about stuff thanks to too much hanging out with the tin-foil haberdashers)